I finally knocked on the door of the General's Mansion, and it was the head of the family, Qin Gu, who opened the door for me. When Si'er was in Baili Mansion before, he only told me that he had a serious illness in his hometown, but he didn't tell me that he was old and frail and became like this.

Qin Gu's face was sallow, there were many dark brown spots on his cheeks, his previously gray hair had become snow-white, and his straight back had become stiff.

"Jiazai, are you all right? What kind of medicine can I take now? I followed him into the backyard and asked worriedly.

"I'm fine, don't worry about it. That's how it is when people get old, they can't afford to get sick. He turned around and smiled at me, "The general has been waiting in the study for a day, so hurry up!" ”

"Hmm." I quickened my pace with Qin Gu, "Si'er's eldest brother is back?" "I remembered that Si'er said before that the eldest grandson of the head of the family was dragged to be a soldier, and the granddaughter-in-law also ran away with someone, and now that the war in Qin is over, I think I should have gone home.

"I came back, but I was shot dead in the city tower a few days ago." Qin Gu coughed twice, his voice hoarse and gloomy, "Fortunately, the corpse is complete, and it was transported back to his hometown for burial." This can be regarded as going home, at least there is no need to worry about him going to other countries in the future, and his body will not be able to come back. ”

I'd rather be a ghost in my hometown than a stranger. There was a hint of relief in the grief of the housekeeper, and this relief made me even more sad. In such troubled times, the gray-haired old man only begged his children and grandchildren to leave a whole corpse and return to his hometown. A full house of children and grandchildren and a peaceful life are unrealistic fantasies for them.

"The general is inside, ladies come in!" I took off my shoes at the door, straightened my clothes, took a deep breath, opened the door and walked in.

The tree-shaped phoenix top lamp holder in the four corners of the room has been lit with candles, Wu Feng held a book and leaned on the desk as before, and when he saw me coming in, he raised his head and asked softly: "Are you back?" "That look as if I had just sent Cai Fuzi out, and now I was going to come in to read the paper with him and talk to him.

I knelt down in front of Wu Feng and said in a low voice, "The day after tomorrow, I will return to the Jin Kingdom with the people of the Zhao family." ”

"In such a hurry, I thought you'd want to come back and stay a few more days." He looked stunned, sat up, and wanted to say something more, but he couldn't speak, so he had to roll up the books spread out on the desk and pile them aside.

The room became quiet for a moment, neither of us spoke, just sat quietly facing each other.

There was a small crack in the south window of the study, and the night breeze whizzed in from outside, blowing out a little candle on the desk. I got up and silently closed the window, took a small piece of fire, and re-lit the kneeling bean-shaped lamp that had been with me for many years. "You-why did you lie to me in the first place?" I blew out the firewood in my hand, looked at the green smoke rising from the top of the branch, and asked softly.

"Because I can't look at your face and tell you what I've decided." Wu Feng lowered his eyelids, and his eyelashes cast two semicircular shadows under his eye sockets, making his face even more gloomy at the moment.

"You promised me that as long as my mind remains the same as before, you will allow me to stay with you forever. Now that my mind has not changed, why have you broken your word? ”

"I ......"

"You don't have to answer me in a hurry, I've been hiding these questions in my heart for a long time, you listen to me first." I took a step forward and looked deeply into his eyes, "You saved me ten years ago and treated me so well, so that one day I can win over the powerful for you and control the government?" All the things you say and all the things you do, so that I may willingly marry someone else for your use? ”

"That's what you see of me?" He looked at me with a look of almost despair on his face.

"You don't have to lie to me anymore, the night you met your uncle and concubine, I sat on the pear blossom tree." As soon as I remembered everything I had heard and seen in the trees that day, a fire suddenly rose in my heart. This fire burned my face red, and it also burned my eyes, "From beginning to end, I have been a chess piece in the palm of your hand, a chess piece that has been raised for ten years but went wrong at the last moment." Not only did I let you waste all your efforts, but I also forced you to send your beloved woman to the Gongzi Mansion and leave your own son at the border to suffer. I ......," I said, choking up at the end.

"Child, are you hating me?" Wu Feng stood up and walked in front of me, holding me tightly in his arms with his arms, "I'm sorry for letting you hear those words...... That's not true, you've never been a pawn, you're my heart, I took the pain of tearing my heart before I decided to let you marry Gongzili, and after you're gone, this place will be empty......"

"Nope! Don't lie to me anymore, stop lying to me with nice lies! I screamed, punched and kicked, and broke out of his arms like crazy.

"Ah Shi......" The corners of his eyes were wet.

"You said you were going to give me a home, you lifted the hard shell off my body, you pulled out my spikes, but why don't you want me? If I wasn't your Ah Shi, who would I be? I sat down on the ground and poured out all the pain that had been suppressed in my heart for a long time.

Wu Feng hugged me tightly, as if he wanted to embed me in his bones: "If hating me makes you feel better, hate it, never forgive me." ”

"Tell me why? Tell me your reasons. I looked up with a sob.

He reached out to wipe away my tears, took off his robe and draped it over me, and said softly, "Are you still willing to listen to me tell you another story, my story?" ”

I love the habit of listening to stories on the rooftop, which I have cultivated since I was a child.

In the past, every summer, Yongcheng would be turned into a big furnace. If you are stuffy in the room at night, you will be tired of sweating in less than half an hour. So, Wu Feng often took me to the roof to enjoy the shade and tell the stories that were happening in the world. For those who have a heart, these stories are the intelligence of various countries collected by the Qin State, but for a girl in her early tens, they are just simple stories.

Wu Feng has told many stories, Kong Qiu of Lu State, Chen Heng of Qi State, Nanzi of Wei State, Sun Wu of Wu State, and he even told me about Zhao Wuxian's father and ancestors, but he never talked about himself.

The silence of the night shrouded the sky over Yongcheng, and the moon hid behind the clouds, casting a cold light on the earth. The late autumn night was chilly, and the dew was falling on the roof, and it was a little cold to sit on, but it just relieved my heat at the moment.

I was like a patient who had been ill for a long time, anxiously waiting for the doctor's verdict, my palms constantly oozing with fine sweat, and my heart was terrified, but with the courage to see death as home.

"I am a native of Chu, my grandfather is the crown prince of King Chuping, and my father is Wu Shang, the son of the Wu family." Wu Feng helped me tuck my shirt and said lightly.

I know that the relationship between him and Wu Zixu is not simple, but I never thought that he would be Wu Shang's son and Wu Zixu's nephew.

"The Wu family has assisted the King of Chu in governing the country since his great-grandfather, and he has been relied on by the world. However, thirty years ago, King Chuping was instigated and detained by his courtier Fei Wuji, and they also threatened my grandfather's order to deceive my father and uncle back to the capital to kill them together, so as to prevent future troubles. There were two clusters of dark fire in Wu Feng's eyes, even though he tried his best to hide his hatred, he still couldn't suppress the anger in his heart when he recalled the sudden disaster back then.

"Why didn't your father run away with your uncle? He knew that if he went back, he would be sent to death, and the King of Chu would not let go of your grandfather. ”

"My father naturally knew that this was the trick of the King of Chu, but he was the eldest son of the Wu family, and he couldn't bear to let his elderly grandfather die alone, and he couldn't live alone after the Wu family was wiped out. He is not like his uncle, who can cut all ties and survive only by being full of hatred. His heart is too soft, there are too many people he can't let go, if he can't live together, then he can only die together......"

When life and death are in front of us, not all people will choose life.

After Wu Shang returned to the Chu capital, he was killed by the king of Chu soon after his father Wu Hao, and after the death of the two, the king of Chu Ping also ordered the destruction of the Wu family, whether it was a white-haired old woman or an infant baby, all of them were not spared. This is why when Wu Zixu led the Wu army to invade the state of Chu, he had to brave the disapproval of the world and dig up the bones of King Chuping and whip the corpse of 300 corpses, because the hatred he had accumulated for more than ten years needed to be vented once, even if his enemy was dead, it could not calm the anger in his heart.

"It was Wu Zixu who saved you back then?"

"My father gave me to my uncle before he died, and my uncle fostered me in Qi before he defected to King Wu, and then I moved to Qin."

"What about the uncle?" I hesitated for a long time before I said the name.

"When my father was alive, I made a marriage with Chen Hou's eldest daughter, and then I was only two years old when Wu suffered, I thought that this marriage would be annulled, but I didn't expect that thirteen years later, Meng Fei knew that I was not dead, so she took her sister and uncle to Qi to find me, fulfilling the promise her father made to Wu that year. Although I was in the Qi State at that time, I had to escape from the assassins of the Chu State all the time, and the two sisters suffered a lot with me...... Meng Fei died at the age of sixteen on the way from Qi to Qin due to dystocia. ”

"Did the kid survive?"

"Meng Fei was pregnant with twin sons, the boy survived, and the girl died within a few days." Wu Feng took a deep breath and turned his head to look at me, "Ah Shi, the year I saved you, if the baby girl hadn't died, she would have been as old as you." At that time, I tied her to my chest, but there was an archer in ambush in the woods ahead, and when I had a rocket in my chest, I didn't die, but she couldn't cry anymore. Her body was on fire, and the assassins in the woods rushed out to slash and kill, and I had to put her down first, but when I returned, she was already burned to the ground. Ah Shi, she's my daughter, but I haven't even remembered her appearance yet......" Wu Feng looked down at his chest, as if the dead child was still tied there, with a flaming rocket stuck in his body.